The Latest: Friend of Paris suspect detained for questioning

An unidentified man covered in blood lays on a street in Paris Saturday May 12, 2018, as two people look at him. The image was taken by a bystander who filmed the aftermath of a knife attack in Paris in which a 29-year-old man was stabbed to death and four others injured on Saturday evening. The Paris police said the attacker was subdued by officers during the stabbing attack in the 2nd arrondissement or district of the French capital.(Wladia Drummond via AP)(Photo: Wladia Drummond / AP)

A judicial official says a friend of the young man who rampaged through a central Paris neighborhood knifing passers-by has been detained in the eastern French city of Strasbourg.

The friend is the third person French police have taken in for questioning since the suspect in the Saturday night attack – a 20-year-old French citizen born in the Russian republic of Chechnya – killed one person and wounded four others.

The parents of the alleged attacker were picked up in the northern 18th district of Paris after their son was fatally shot by police.

The president of Chechnya identified the assailant as Khasan Azimov.

The judicial official said the man detained Sunday was a friend of Azimov’s who also was born in 1997. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked that he not be named.

– by Elaine Ganley in Paris.

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4:00 p.m.

A French judicial official says the young man who stabbed people in a lively Paris neighborhood didn’t have an arrest record but was on a watch list for potential radicalism.

The official said the parents of the alleged attacker, a 20-year-old French citizen who was born in the Russian republic of Chechnya, were still being questioned on Sunday.

They were detained at their residence in Paris’ northern 18th district after police shot and killed the suspect in Saturday night’s attack.

The judicial official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly and asked not to be named.

One person was killed and four others wounded in the knifing rampage near the Paris Garnier Opera house. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov identified the suspect as Khasan Azimov.

– by Elaine Ganley in Paris.

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3:15 p.m.

The head of the Russian republic of Chechnya says France bears responsibility for the fatal knife attack by a Chechnya-born man in Paris.

Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov said Sunday that he has been informed the dead attacker had received French citizenship and held a Russian passport until he was 14.

A French judicial official not authorized to speak publicly says the suspect was born in November 1997, which made him 20 now.

Kadyrov identified the suspect, whom police fatally shot, as Khasan Azimov; French media reports gave his first name as Khamzat.

Russian news agencies quoted the Chechen leader saying: “I consider it necessary to state that all responsibility for the fact that Khasan Azimov went on the road of crime lies completely with the authorities of France. He was only born in Chechnya, and his growing up, the formation of his personality, his views and persuasions occurred in French society.”

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12:15 p.m.

A man from Luxembourg was among four people wounded in a stabbing attack in the heart of Paris.

The foreign ministry of the small country north of France said in a statement Sunday that the man was given emergency treatment and he’s no longer in danger. The statement didn’t say whether he was in Paris as a tourist or resident or provide other details.

A 29-year-old man was killed in the attack and four people were wounded. Interior Minister Gerard Collomb said one of the injured underwent emergency surgery, and two friends were hospitalized with less serious injuries, but all are out of life-threatening danger.

The attacker was killed by police after the stabbing near the Opera Garnier on a busy Saturday night.

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10:40 a.m.

A French official says the Chechen man behind a deadly stabbing in central Paris had been on police radar for radicalism.

The judicial official told The Associated Press that while the alleged assailant had no record of arrests or convictions, he had been on a nationwide database of thousands of people suspected of links to radicalism. The official wasn’t authorized to be publicly named speaking about an ongoing investigation.

The assailant was killed by police after fatally stabbing one man and injuring four other people. The attacker’s parents are under questioning. Counterterrorism investigators are leading the probe into Saturday’s attack near the Paris opera house, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.

Authorities say the attacker was born in the majority Muslim Russian republic of Chechnya, which has long grappled with extremism. The Russian Embassy in France wouldn’t comment Sunday.

–By Angela Charlton in Paris.

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9:50 a.m.

French officials say the Russian-born man who attacked five people in central Paris with a knife had no police record and didn’t know his victims.

Interior Ministry spokesman Frederic de Lanouvelle told The Associated Press on Sunday that the man was born in the Russian republic of Chechnya in 1997 and did not have any previous convictions or arrests. He said the attacker had no link to his victims.

It wasn’t clear whether the assailant had been flagged for radicalism in the past. The Islamic State group claimed he was one of their fighters.

A police official said the assailant didn’t have identity documents with him during Saturday’s attack but was identified thanks to DNA. His parents were under questioning Sunday.

The assailant was killed after stabbing a 29-year-old man to death and injuring two women and two men. Their lives were out of danger Sunday.

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8:20 a.m.

A French judicial official says the man behind a deadly knife attack in central Paris was born in Chechnya in 1997, and his parents have been detained.

The official said Sunday the assailant had French nationality but was born in the Russian republic. The official, who wasn’t authorized to be publicly named, provided no other information on the attacker’s identity.

The French interior minister is holding a special security meeting Sunday to address the attack, which was claimed by the Islamic State group.

The attacker was killed by police after killing a 29-year-old man and injuring four others in a lively neighborhood near the Opera Garnier on Saturday night.